Assistant Commissioner of Police Leon Bethell said yesterday that police have intensified their patrols on the island ahead of the upcoming Boxing Day Junkanoo Parade. Bethell, who was surrounded by several heavily armed officers from the SWAT division, warned any would-be trouble makers that there will be no let up in security.

"You will see properly armed trained policemen, who are very good marksmen, on the road," Bethell said. "Anyone who believes that they should interrupt the tranquil atmosphere that we should be enjoying at this time, they have something coming.

"We have in the past few weeks rooted out a lot of persons who believe that their head is bad and that they can take up guns and threaten people and rob and shoot. These troops that you see behind me they have targeted a lot of them and we are going to continue today and tomorrow."

Police reported 13 armed robberies that took place between Friday morning and Sunday night. Five teenagers who police suspect are responsible for carrying out several armed robberies during the past week were arrested and charged on Monday. They were not required to enter pleas to the charges and were remanded to the Bahamas Department of Correctional Services.

The Boxing Day Parade is scheduled to start at 10 p.m. on Christmas night.

"If you are a bad person and you make an attempt to watch Junkanoo it will not happen," Bethell said. "We have so much checkpoints. Plainclothes officers, DEU and CDU officers will be at those checkpoints looking for criminals, or anyone who we suspect of some of the crimes we have not solved."

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